Sharman Pretty to head new Faculty of the VCA and Music
Media Release, Tuesday 9 December 2008
A leading Australian arts practitioner, academic and administrator, Professor Sharman Pretty, will become founding Dean of the new Faculty of the VCA and Music at the University of Melbourne from April 2009.
A former Principal and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Professor Pretty is currently founding Dean of the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI), a Faculty of the University of Auckland.
NICAI is a national centre of innovation in contemporary creative arts and industries research, education and practice, comprising the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Fine Arts (Elam), the School of Music, the Dance Studies Programme and the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery.
From 1995 to 2003, Professor Pretty was Principal and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Faculty of the University of Sydney.
The Sydney Conservatorium provides music education and training services across the state of New South Wales. It comprises the Faculty of approximately 560 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and the Conservatorium Access Centre which delivers community outreach and professional development programs to approximately 1000 people each year.
Originally educated as an oboist in Australia and Germany, Professor Pretty pursued an active career as a performer for over 15 years, and a teacher for 30 years.
A life-long interest in interdisciplinary collaboration was stimulated by her work with the Sydney Dance Company and its Artistic Director, Graeme Murphy, including the co-creation of “Sequenza”, a work for three dancers and on-stage oboe soloist, based on Luciano Berio’s work for oboe solo “Sequenza VII”. The work remained in the Company’s repertoire for 20 years.
Professor Pretty is currently leading the establishment of a Creative Arts Pedagogy and Health Initiative, a collaborative venture with researchers at the University of Sydney that draws on the strength of creative arts pedagogy across the Faculty and links it with scientific research in Medical and Health Sciences and Sports Science, connecting arts practitioners with established researchers.
At Auckland, she also leads the active engagement of the Faculty with various creative industries initiatives and professional partners and has founded the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery to provide an interface between the University’s visual arts resources and research, and the wider community.
She has led her Faculty’s involvement in the 2009 Tertiary Education Commission Academic Audit and recently oversaw the processes of re-accreditation of the professional programs in Architecture and in Planning.
About the Faculty of the VCA and Music
The prestigous Victorian College of the Arts became a faculty of the University of Melbourne in 2007. It will become the Faculty of the VCA and Music on 6 April 2009, when the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Music will integrate with the Faculty of the VCA.
The new Faculty of the VCA and Music will be world class, offering high-standard programs in music, visual and performing arts. It will consist of three schools: Art, Music and Performing Arts, with the School of Music the most comprehensive music school in Australia. The faculty will also offer an impressive range of graduate programs from these schools as well as programs in Film and Television.
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